When I was growing up, I remember that my dad always tacked a three-by-five note card to a corkboard in his home office. Neatly, he had printed words with a black felt tip marker:

“He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.” (Ps. 147:10 NASB)

The card meant the world to him; it moved wherever our family moved, and we relocated a lot. Dad looked to it as a reminder that his identity wasn’t in designing custom homes, skillful carpentry, or owning a successful construction company. God’s words, transcending time, place, and personal circumstances, reassured him as a mysterious disease destroyed nerve fibers and interrupted impulses between his brain and spinal cord, slowly wrecking his muscles.

I hated Multiple Sclerosis for weakening the man who once swooped me upside down so I could walk on the ceiling. I knew I could not stroll from the edge of the yellow gingham curtains on the kitchen ceiling to the light fixture hanging in the family room without his strong arms holding me up. I loved my dad for wanting me to do the impossible.

Until adulthood, I didn’t realize the significance of my parents running a construction company together. Although Dad oversaw the construction workers and site, he and mom collaborated in all other areas of the business—client meetings, architectural and interior designs, and finances, among numerous administrative and creative tasks. I grew up watching them share and trade jobs while winning awards in the Parade of Homes and growing their successful business.… Continue Reading

We first met, one January morning, during her office hours. Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger’s eyes sparkled when our discussion turned to women in the Bible. She spoke of them fondly as if they were close friends—Miriam, Deborah, Abigail and a host of others from the Old and New Testaments. She spoke warmly though she didn’t waste time getting down to business: “They provide us with role models of personal piety, courage, commitment, and ingenuity.”

Snowflakes blew outside the wide windows behind her desk. I was struck by her passion for uncovering women’s daily lives, activities and personal experiences with Christ in the early church. I had no idea that Cathie—as she asked to be called—would influence my life perhaps more than anyone. Eagerly, I signed up for her course “Women in the Early Church.” I’d always wondered about women who seemed to occupy the margins of the Bible. Was it possible to glean enough information to actually know them as role models? Did they really display traits of courage, commitment, and ingenuity when so many portraits I’d received in church resembled Betty Crocker overseeing a potluck[1]?

I wanted to plumb depths beyond stereotypical womanhood; and Cathie pointed the way. She challenged me, and other students, to learn a variety of disciplines for studying the Bible—ancient near eastern context, Greek and Roman classical evidence, original languages, hermeneutics, church history, biblical theology, and more. Cathie explained: “Plain readings of modern Bible translations—that are far removed from original contexts—tend to color our modern understandings.” This happens, for example, when 1 Timothy 2:8-15 is used to universally bar women from ministry, leadership, and teaching. Patiently, she explained that Paul meant to address outrageous cultic practices creeping into the newly birthed church from the nearby Temple of Artemis. “In this context,” she added, “it is appropriate to silence loud, out of control, recently converted women who dominate men for selfish gain.” During one-on-one meetings, Cathie answered my numerous questions about other passages endorsing the ministry, leadership, and teaching of women including Lydia, Dorcas, Priscilla, Tryphena, Euodia, Synteche, and Junia.… Continue Reading

Having realized that women are generally considered less than men, I was doubly shocked to find that women perpetuate this inequality by ‘color!’ Even those who do not consider themselves racists, some, nevertheless, perpetuate this gender inequality among women!

In my experience, and with the exception of very few, most white women assume the worst of colored women. A Black woman is almost always under suspicion or on a shaky pedestal. The middle grounds required for overall acceptance and belonging are few and far between.

How can the Black woman live as an equal if even her white(r) counterparts don’t even see her as equal?

For gender equality to be effective for all women, we need solidarity of all women,otherwise we perpetuate the myth that women are not equal to men and that it’s only by chance that a few women can be considered equal.

How can women successfully advocate for gender equality when men cannot see women of all nationalities, ethnicities, social statuses, etc., binding and working together in friendship and professionally?

If women are equal to men, shouldn’t we be also equal among ourselvesor do we need to fight another battle to establish equality among ourselves? If so, doesn’t that diminish the effectiveness of our advocacy?

If women would successfully stand equally with men, then it must be all women or none at all.… Continue Reading

It feels like we all found a DeLorean time machine and traveled back in time ten years ago. In 2007, gas cost $3.38 per gallon, the first iPhone was released, and Nancy Pelosi was elected as the first female Speaker of the US Congress. But it doesn’t feel like 2007 because of any of those items. Rather, one other earth-shattering event that took place that year – at least earth-shattering for evangelical Christians – was the release of The Shack.

I’ve come to see what The Shack really is at its core. It’s an American, pop-culture story intertwined with the Christian faith. Nothing more; nothing less. Around the time of its release, I posted my own three-part blog series (totaling 12,000 words) in which I offered that the book was not committing deadly heresy. I still don’t have a problem with the book today, and I’ll even admit that I actually enjoyed reading it. It was moving. But today I am reminded of what it is: an American, pop-culture story intertwined with the Christian faith.

Still, what I find disturbing on some level is the amount of energy exerted by so many evangelical leaders in an effort to call out the heresy of The Shack and to protect others from the book and now the film. Take, for example, Tony Reinke’s recent article, Our Mother Who Art In Heaven?, posted over at the Desiring God blog.

This article in particular challenges The Shack’s notion that God, the Father, can be portrayed as a woman called Papa. [Thankfully, as far as I can tell, Reinke doesn’t have a problem with God, the Father, being portrayed with black skin.] These are the words of Papa, herself, as she converses with the main character, Mack:

“I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or woman, it’s because I love you. For me to appear to you as a woman and suggest you call me Papa is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning.”

In honor of Women’s History Month, I have gathered some favorite quotes. This list far from represents the influences of women throughout history. What quotes have most influenced you and why?

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” -CATHERINE OF SIENA

“When you look at the inner workings of electrical things, you see wires. Until the current passes through them, there will be no light. That wire is you and me. The current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, to produce the light of the world, Jesus, in us. Or we can refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread.” -MOTHER TERESA

“My heart rejoices in the Lord! The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies; I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” -HANNAH (1 Samuel 2:1-2 NLT)

“In the beginning the labor and toil is difficult for those who come to work for God in stillness and silence; later it becomes indescribably joy. Just as those who wish to start a fire are at first filled with smoke and shed tears, but they cannot reach the goal any other way; so too are those who desire to start within themselves the divine fire—they ignite it with tears and toil, in stillness and silence.” -SYNCLETICA